Contents

Summary

After just encountering Alison moments before, the four girls now sit in Spencer’s room, visibly shaken. They are all confused and wonder where Ali has been hiding all of this time, and even question if she is A. No matter what, they resolve to try and make Rosewood a safer place for Ali to return to.

They travel to the mausoleum where Ali’s body was believed to have been buried, and Hanna mentions that Caleb checked out A’s lair and it was emptied out. Spencer wonders if Ali reached out to anyone else, such as Jason. Hanna says that she has a theory: whoever was buried in Ali’s place still died, and she had to have been placed under the gazebo before it was filled with cement. This means that a girl must have gone missing around the same time that Ali did, and if they find out who, they can connect her to someone they know and solve the case. The girls realize that the body was identified as Ali because it was important that everyone believed that she was dead.

A week later, Emily visits Jessica DiLaurentis, who still changes Ali’s sheets. Emily asks her about Jason, but Jessica replies that he has been on a cross country trip but she would be able to get a hold of him if it was an emergency.

Meanwhile, Hanna begins searching for other teens that went missing the same time as Alison did. Ashley walks in and talks on the phone about getting a job—no one is hiring her since she was released from prison. Hanna’s father, Tom, has also offered Hanna to go with him and Isabel on a trip to Australia, but Hanna wants nothing to do with it.

At school, Emily tells Aria and Spencer about Jessica and Jason, and Spencer expresses that someone needs to know where Jason is. All three girls are nervous because things have been quiet ever since they saw Ali outside Spencer’s barn. Toby arrives from a trip in which he researched his mom, but he doesn’t have many answers. Mona pulls up in Jenna’s old car—it is hinted that what she was doing with Shana was buying Jenna’s car from her.

Paige and Emily discuss swimming, but Paige notices that something else is on Emily’s mind, resulting in Emily lashing out at her. In the halls, Mona approaches Hanna, but Hanna rebuffs her. After Ezra’s class, Ezra tells Aria to stay for a minute.

In an empty classroom, Hanna shows Spencer and Emily the website for a missing girl named Sara Harvey, who was last seen Labor Day weekend, the same time that Ali went missing. Sara is from Courtland, not far from Rosewood. She is blonde and is similar in appearance to Alison, so Hanna decides to arrange a meeting with some of Sara’s friends, disguising the meeting as a support session. As the girls look at the webpage, the projector flips on, showing an old film laced with a message from A: whoever finds Alison first gets to keep her.

Ezra apologizes to Aria for getting her involved with Malcom, and admits that he did it so that he could get closer to her again. He says that his time at Rosewood High is almost up, and that he hopes that once she has graduated that he may prove to her that he is the person she thinks he is.

That night, Spencer talks to her dad about finding Jason, but he angrily shuts down the idea. Spencer pleads with him, so he agrees to find out where Jason is, but only if Spencer stops seeing Jessica.

Hanna writes to one of Sara’s friends and schedules coffee. She takes out Alison’s old journal and tries to open it. Toby talks to Spencer, and shows her a list of people from a visitors’ log that may have known about Wilden paying off Radley and Marion’s non-suicide. Toby says that he was able to talk to most of the people, and they wanted to talk but were afraid of getting into trouble. It is revealed that Radley is owned by Declodyne, a healthcare company, and it is believed that they covered up Marion’s accident. Toby just wants the company to say that his mom didn’t kill herself, and Spencer thinks she has a way to do it.

At the Brew, Hanna tells Emily and Aria that she made an appointment with Tina, a friend of Sara Harvey’s, and that she doesn’t want to meet up with her alone. Emily says that she doesn’t want to go, and is mad that Ali never reached out to any of them or told them that she was alive. Hanna says that no matter what Ali has been up to, they need to bring her back to find out what has been going on. Caleb, who has just returned from his stay in Ravenswood, walks into the Brew, surprising Hanna. The two embrace and discuss why he has returned. He tells her that things with Miranda and her family are more complicated than he had realized.

The next day, Spencer and Toby visit Declodyne’s headquarters and speak to Mrs. Mainway, the head of the company. Meanwhile, Emily and Hanna sit with Tina and her friend, Claire, and they discuss Sara Harvey. Sara is described as being very similar to Ali, and Sara and her friends also went to a movie theater in Rosewood. However, she was last seen before the hole had been filled with cement, meaning that Sara was not the one buried in Ali’s grave.

In downtown Rosewood, Mona runs into Ezra outside of a bookstore. She says she is envious that the four girls have Ezra to look up to, and she wishes that she could have a mentor like him. At Declodyne, Spencer and Toby explain the issue to Mrs. Mainway, who is hesitant to take any action. When Spencer threatens to spread the news about Radley online, she gives in.

Hanna arrives home and briefly tells Aria that Sara is not the one buried in Ali’s grave. She sees Jessica talking with Ashley in the kitchen, and it is revealed that Jessica has offered Ashley a job in her real estate company. Ashley and Hanna are thrilled, and Jessica says that Alison visited her in a dream and told her to do this for Ashley.

Over coffee, Mona and Ezra discuss Ezra’s reading list for the class, and Mona hints at the possibility that Ezra is truly hiding something. Ezra subtly warns Mona to back off, or else.

Hanna tells Caleb about what Jessica said, but he seems to have other things in mind. He tells her that he can’t say what happened in Ravenswood, but he made promises to some people there that he needs to keep. He tells her that he needs to go back there.

Toby and Spencer look over the document stating that Marion’s accident was not a suicide. Both are thrilled that they have accomplished this. Mr. Hastings walks in and they tell him the news; he says that with something like this, they could take the issue a step further and have Radley shut down. Toby is excited, but Spencer seems weary.

Aria calls Ezra and asks to pick her up, and they drive off. That night, Emily cleans up the Brew when someone knocks on the door—it is Claire, one of Sara Harvey’s friends. She had remembered that Emily worked here, so she had decided to stop by.

Ezra brings Aria to a small cottage in the woods, and explains that it belongs to a friend of his, but he watches over the place. Aria tells Ezra that she is seeing someone else, and Ezra gives her a key to the cottage, saying that it could be their secret. The two kiss.

At the Brew, Claire explains that another one of Sara’s friends, Avery, has been inconsolable ever since Sara went missing. She describes how envious she is of the situation with Alison—she wishes that Sara were dead as well, because it has been very hard being one of her friends. She describes Sara as being someone perfect, but someone that would also take away two things for everything she give you. She says that she wished that Sara were dead even before she’d disappeared, and she runs out of the Brew, crying.

At Hanna’s house, Caleb tells her that he has to leave for Ravenswood. Hanna protests and asks if it is because of Miranda. Caleb says that it isn’t like that, but Miranda needs her. Hanna begins to cry, calling herself stupid for giving him to Miranda. Caleb tells her that he isn’t seeing her, but she still needs him. He says he can’t tell her what really happened. He walks out of the house, and Ashley comes downstairs to console Hanna.

Spencer talks to her dad about why he is offering to help Toby close down Radley. He claims it is for Spencer’s benefit, but she isn’t convinced. Meanwhile, at the cottage, Aria gazes outside while Ezra looks at a trapdoor in the floor.

Emily tells Paige that Ali let her kiss her, but that when she realized that it meant nothing to Ali, she was very hurt. She says that she doesn’t think that Ali ever loved anyone, but all she did was collect love. She says that Ali broke her heart. Paige asks if this is how she finally says good-bye to Ali, and Emily says it is.

As Caleb walks to his car, Hanna meets him there, telling him that no matter what, they couldn’t say good-bye like that. They say farewell to one another and part—and Caleb is seen crying at his steering wheel.

The next day, the four girls meet once again at the mausoleum and pay their respects to whoever is buried in Ali’s grave. Hanna then pulls out Ali’s diary, and says that she was hesitant to show the others sooner because of all the stories in there about them.

Ali's Diary

In the final shot, a figure walks into the cottage and pulls open the trapdoor, revealing a hidden basment.

Notes

Marlene, Bryan, Jonell, Kyle and Lijah tweeted that "There's a B in the box" with #PLLclue.

The promo for 4B also states that Emily is letting Ali come between them, so Spencer tells her "Don't let her come between us" and Emily is the one that shouts "Don't!" to Spencer in the original promo. ("Close Encounters") based on Spencer's clothes and the picture taken from set of Troian.)

Title and Background

With Alison being alive now confirmed, it is assumed that the "box" is a coffin, and this episode deals with who was buried in Ali's coffin instead of her. This has been confirmed by Marlene King.

Trivia

Quotes

Spencer [about Ali]: There is someone Ali is so afraid of, she can't come back.

Ezra [to Mona]: Fear can be a very good thing.

Hanna [to Caleb]: Tell me what happened!

Mona [to Hanna]: Your shutting me out again, I can understand the others, but not you.

Hanna: She's not telling us the truth!

Aria: Then Grunwald pulled her out.Hanna: Like a carrot.

Aria: Why didn't she call the cops?Emily: Which cops was she supposed to call? Wilden? Garrett?

Hanna: Ali not calling the cops is the only thing I do understand.

Aria: We just found out Alison is alive really alive. Why don't I feel insanely happy?

Emily: I thought it was just me.

Hanna: It's not.

Spencer: We can figure out how to feel later, the fact is, Ali's alive. She's been hiding the whole time, maybe in Rosewood, maybe in Philadelphia, maybe Nova Scotia. The sooner we make it okay for her to come back, the sooner we can put her in a chair and ask her what the hell's going on and why she did this to us.

Emily: Alison always liked games.

Aria: What? She's been playing with us? Chasing us around the game board like she...

Emily: Like she was A.

Mona [to Ezra]: Makes me think about how much better I'd be doing, if I found the right mentor.

Spencer [to Toby] I think you should probably hold me right now, otherwise I'm going to explode and you'll have to explain that to the custodians.

Gallery

On the PLL set this morning watching @ichadlowe direct the winter premiere